You may recall earlier this year the Smithsonian American Art Museum was running a vote for games to showcase in their 2012 Art of Video Games exhibit. Eighty titles have been selected to represent the various systems and generations of gaming over the past 30 years. Mega Man 2 was a contender for NES action game of the 8-bit era, but it ultimately lost out to Super Mario Bros. 3. I'm not terribly surprised; without a doubt the 8-bit era was one where high quality games were constantly popping up from around the corner. Mega Man 2 is a great title, but it also had quite a lot of stiff competition for the time. As a nominee, I don't think Mega Man 2 will be represented in an exhibit, but it's still a strong show of just what an impact the game for its time!
You can check this PDF for a list of all winning titles, as well as nominees for the respective brackets.